


Tears

by Alixtii



Category: Fairy Tales - Fandom, Hansel and Gretel
Genre: Cannibalism, Crying, F/F, Fairy Tales, Female Protagonist, POV Female Character, POV Third Person, Past Tense, Podfic Available, Siblings, Stripping, Tears, Witchestches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-06-09
Updated: 2007-06-09
Packaged: 2017-10-02 14:50:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alixtii/pseuds/Alixtii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The witch told Gretel if she kept on crying she would have no tears left, but the girl would not listen.</p><p><img/>Also available as a  <a href="http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/dear-my-ideal-audience/">podfic</a> read by <a href="http://www.audiofic.jinjurly.com/category/rhea314reader">rhea314</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tears

The best food was cooked for poor Hansel, but Gretel and the witch ate nothing but crab-shells, and she would fall asleep each night alongside his cage, crying and lamenting his fate. And the witch, who, despite being very wicked, was not really unkind, said to her, "It is not good for you to cry yourself to sleep, my dear. Soon you will have no tears left. Come with me, my girl, and sleep with me in my bed." And so from that point on Gretel would sleep with the witch in the witch's bed but at night once the witch had fallen asleep, she would sneak out of the bed and go to Hansel's cage and cry beside it, and then return to the witch's bed in the morning before she awoke.

This continued for another week, until the witch told Gretel to stir herself and fetch some water, for whether he was fat or lean, her brother was to be cooked the next morning. Ah, how the poor little sister did lament when she had to fetch the water, and how her tears did flow down her cheeks!

But the witch was as wise as she was wicked, and had spoken true, and soon Gretel had cried so much that she had no tears left. And so, having exhausted her giref in this fashion, she brought the water back to the witch so that her brother would be able to be boiled in it, and the next morning she went out and hung the cauldron filled with the water and lit a fire underneath.

"Now," said the witch, releasing Hansel from his cage and bringing him to the cauldron. "Remove your brother's clothes from his body, so we can put him in the cauldron to boil."

"What shall I do with them, old woman?" Gretel asked the witch, as she took off all of her brother's clothes.

"Throw them on the fire," the witch answered. "They shan't be needed anymore."

And so Gretel threw Hansel's clothing into the fire beneath the cauldron, and then she and the witch put him into the cauldron to boil, and then once he had boiled long enough to be eaten they set a table and feasted on poor Hansel, and through it all Gretel's eyes remained dry.

The witch and Gretel lived together for many more years, until the old woman grew older still and passed into death. Gretel did not shed any tears over the witch's grave, however, for she had used them all up on her brother so many years ago.

**Author's Note:**

>   You can find [an audiofic version of this fic](http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/dear-my-ideal-audience/), read by [rhea314](http://www.audiofic.jinjurly.com/category/rhea314reader), [at the Audiofic Archive](http://audiofic.jinjurly.com/dear-my-ideal-audience/).


End file.
